Heat exchangers are used, inter alia, in motor vehicles such as trucks and passenger cars, in the form of vehicle coolers, for the purpose of cooling the engine block by means of circulating liquid.
A conventional vehicle cooler consists partly of two tanks, partly of a heat-exchanger assembly which is situated therebetween and is connected to the tanks. The one tank serves as a collecting point for the heated-up liquid arriving from the engine block, while the other tank collects the cooled liquid from the heat-exchanger assembly and leads it out to the engine block. There are also heat-exchanger constructions having only one tank, in which case the liquid is led into and out of the same tank.
A conventional and very common type of vehicle cooler has tanks consisting of a plastics cover and an end plate made from an aluminum alloy, while the rest of the cooler, like the end plate, is manufactured in aluminum. The cover forms an upward-facing and downward-facing trough, which is situated on top of an end plate belonging to a heat-exchanger assembly forming part of the vehicle cooler, a gasket, for sealing purposes, being placed between the plastics trough and the end plate.
The above-stated construction has the major drawback that two totally different materials are required for the creation of the vehicle cooler tank. The design of the vehicle cooler tank and hence the entire vehicle cooler in two different materials has negative consequences in terms of the recoverability of the vehicle in which the cooler is placed. Since plastic and metal are recovered under totally different processes, the cover of the tank would have to be separated from the other part of the vehicle cooler prior to recovery, this entailing extra costs which make rational recovery more difficult.
The drawback of designing the vehicle cooler tank in two different materials is eliminated by means of a conventional type of vehicle cooler in which both the heat-exchanger assembly and the tank are manufactured in brass. The tank is formed by a cover in the form of an upward-facing and downward-facing trough, which is placed on top of an end plate of the heat-exchanger assembly. The edges of the trough are fitted into a V-shaped groove extending along the edge portions of the end plate. The joining-together of the trough and the end plate is further realized by means of soft-soldering, by a solder material, preferably tin, filling the space between the edge portions of the cover and the walls of the groove.
The above-stated construction of the vehicle cooler tank has, however, a number of other drawbacks. As a result of the trough being placed in the groove of the end plate, various fixtures are required to detain the trough during the soldering procedure. The soldering operation is also time-consuming, since a solder material which is applied from outside would constantly have to be supplied in order to obtain the soldered joints. Furthermore, it is not very favorable to design the tank, and also the rest of the cooler moreover, in brass, since this results in a heavy construction, having an adverse effect upon the performance and fuel consumption of the vehicle, and in a construction having deficient corrosion characteristics.
There is therefore a need for a solution which is better relative to the two above-presented constructions.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the drawbacks with the latter constructions and, at the same time, to enable a heat exchanger to be produced in one and the same material.